VOWEL-to-CONSONANT COARTICULATION IN MOROCCAN ARABIC

The richness of consonant contrasts in MA offers an opportunity to test hypotheses about contextual variability of tongue positions during /C/ and /V/ in /VCV/ symmetric vowel contexts. This study focuses on V-to-C coarticulation influence and aims to better characterize for the first time the degree of such coarticulation as a function of the different primary and secondary articulations of MA consonants. Our physiological investigations confirm our main hypothesis that contextual variability of tongue positions during /C/ is greater in regions not involved in its closure or the formation of the constriction for that /C/.